“Red red wine you make me feel so fine
You keep me rocking all of the time”
~ UB40 – Red Red Wine Lyrics
Grape stomping has been on our travel bucket list for some time. In our minds, we would grape stomp in round, wooden crates I Love Lucy style! August is harvest time in Texas therefore Messina Hof winery in Bryan, TX offers Harvest Festival festivities each weekend throughout the month.
Beautiful property which includes an event space overlooking the vineyards
As soon as we read the events for the harvest, we were sold!
~Grape picking & stomping
~Estate tour & wine tasting
~Luncheon at The Vintage House Restaurant (on-site)
Upon arrival, we were given harvesting knives and treated to coffee/juice prior to starting the picking.
We headed out to the vines and were instructed to pick all grapes and dump them in buckets. The staff was very hospitable and created friendly competition amongst us to find the largest grape bundle. How fun!
For the first 10 minutes this was super fun. After the completion of 2 rows in the blazing heat of August in Texas, the novelty wore off. They had us stay out for nearly 30 minutes! What an awesome business model. Lure people into your vineyard by offering grape stomping and have them PAY you to do the hard work of harvesting!
We filled up several of these crates and dumped them in to their larger bins.
About 10 minutes prior to them finishing, we made our way inside the venue to enjoy the winery view from the air conditioning. As a side note, the location would be very nice as an event space!
Finally it was time to make our way to the garage for the grape stomping event!
**Cue disappointing music**
It was a mad dash as they CRAMMED people into the blue tubs. It was very unorganized and was not the fun, relaxed event we had envisioned.
Never-the-less, I quickly joined the masses for my tiny spot in the bins. They squeezed 5 people in each bin and we stomped around for about 45 seconds.
Upon exiting, they give t-shirts to capture your very own wine-stained footprints.
Next was Brian’s turn. Being the germ-a-phob that he is, he couldn’t get passed all of the gross feet that had been in the tub by the time he entered!
Following the grape stomp, they split us into 2 groups. Half went to tour the wine making process while the other half stayed for the wine tasting portion. We stayed and completely regretted the order we chose. Throughout the entire wine tasting session, the winery staff were moving around the stomping bins and cleaning up, therefore it was impossible to hear or learn anything about their wine. Poor sequence of events on their part.
Overall it was an interesting way to spend an afternoon. We made the most of the experience although I’m not sure we would be in a rush to return next year. The winery is beautiful and we will likely return to enjoy their restaurant and wines without the harvest festivities.
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In my grandparents’ time that’s how they used to make wine. I am originally from Romania and I believe there are still villages where they make wine like that today. I love the aroma of the wine grapes. It’s very different from the ones that are for eating, isn’t it?
How cool that you have some historical perspective on wine making in Romania! They encouraged us to try to eat the grapes as we picked them and I agree they are different from the eating grapes.
Ha! Funny. That is NOT at all how I imagined grape stomping. I’m thinking cute oak barrel, one person…some music… At least the winery was beautiful and it looks like you had a great day.
Yes, sounds like we had the same vision of grape stomping! 🙂
Haha! Couldn’t help but laugh at “I love Lucy style” lol We love that show!! She is a genius 😉 this looks like so much fun. http://www.ourfoodieappetite.com/traveling-to-dubai-20-things-we-wish-we-knew-part-2/
Well you can say that you have grape stomped- not many people can claim that!
This looks like so much fun and it has also been on my travel wish list after seeing that I Love Lucy episode many times. I didn’t imagine being crammed with other people though. What an experience and now you’ve inspired me to check if they have any such events in nearby wineries here in Southern California.